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231 



VENTILATION. 



tVinlcriiig Bees in Cellars that 

 are Ventilated. 



Written for the American Bee Jounml 



BY Dlt. C. C. MILLER. 



As much because I think the matter 

 exceedingly important, and would like 

 to learu the truth, as because I think I 

 know a little about it, I want to say 

 something about ventilation of cellars. 



There are a gi-eat many things un- 

 settled in the domain of bee-keeping, 

 and I consider the whole matter of 

 wintering bees as one of them — at least 

 it is unsettled with me. But there ai-e 

 some things pretty definiteh' settled, 

 and among them I count this, that 

 bees, to winter in the best manner, 

 must have plenty of ventilation. You 

 need not tell me that Mr. Doolittle 

 winters his bees without ventilation — 

 he does nothing of the kind. Even if 

 he shuts up his bees in a cave, and 

 leaves them untouched all winter (and 

 it makes me green with envy when I 

 think of it), closing his ventilators 

 tight, still those bees get ventilation 

 through the walls and soil the roof, 

 possibly about all they need. I sus- 

 pect, however, that if there could be a 

 freer exchange of air without lowering 

 the temperature, his bees might be the 

 better for it. ■ 



Now do not let us get into a quarel 

 on account of a misunderstanding of 

 terms. By plenty of ventilation, I 

 mean a sullicient change of .air in the 

 •cellar so that the bees shall have all 

 the oxygen they need, and not be 

 obliged to breath poisonous gases. 

 How much it takes to make plenty, I 

 do not know. If enough air for their 

 needs comes through the cracks of a 

 ■cellar-wall, then they have plenty of 

 ventilation. But whatever it be, 

 w^hether a 12-inch tile or an invisible 

 •crack, that much or that little thej' 

 must have, or they will suffer. 



In the last 30 years I think there has 

 ■never been a time when there were 

 not some who insisted that, bees win- 

 tered out'-doors,were healther.stronger, 

 and built up faster in the spring than 

 those wintered in the cellar ; and why 

 shouldn't there be something in it ? 

 Take two men alike in all other re- 

 spects, only that one lives mostly in 

 the open air, and the other in a close 

 room, and we know that there will be 

 a marked difference in tlieir physical 

 condition. One is weaker and paler 

 than the other, and the general rule 

 for all animals is, that for the best 



physical development plenty of pure 

 air is essential. 



Now the sole object, I think, of win- 

 tering bees in cellars, is to keep them 

 in a higher temperature than they 

 would have out-dooi-s. Aside from 

 temperature, the nearer the cellar can 

 be kept like out-doors, the better. 

 Even some of those who insist that 

 bees use so little air that no attention 

 need be paid to the -ventilation of a 

 cellar, insist just as strongly that the 

 ventilation of the hive is very impor- 

 tant, even to having the whole space 

 under the hive entirely open. What is 

 the use of ventilating the hive ? Whj-, 

 to get better air in it, to be sure. 



But suppose the cellar be hermeti- 

 cally sealed, every time the bad air of 

 tlie hive is changed the air of the cel- 

 lar becomes vitiated so that it is only 

 a question of time when the ventilation 

 of the hive becomes practically impos- 

 sible, for the simi)le reason that there 

 is no pure air in the cellar. A single 

 colony in a cellar might get along 

 comfortably well, even if not a thim- 

 bleful of fresh air could get into the 

 cellar, if the cellar were large enough, 

 and a hundred colonies might do 

 equally well, if the cellar were large 

 enough. 



But a cellar which would winter 

 finely 10 colonies, depending upon the 

 fresh air that would force its way 

 through the walls, might prove a fail- 

 ure with 100 colonies. It must be re- 

 membered that if ten times as many 

 colonies are put into a cellar, each 

 colony will not have one-tenth as much 

 air. 



For the s.ake of illusti'ation, suppose 

 that each hive with its contents dis- 

 places one cubic foot of air ; and sup- 

 pose the cellar contains 510 cubic 

 feet. If 10 colonies are placed in it 

 there will be left for them 500 cubic 

 feet of air, or 50 cubic feet for each 

 colony. Now if 100 colonies are put 

 in, displacing 100 cubic feet of air, 

 there will be left for them 410 feet of 

 air, or 4.1 feet for each colon3' — about 

 one-twelfth as much as when one-tenth 

 as many hives were there. 



If I am not mistaken, the matter of 

 ventilation is not troublesome in the 

 South, where the temperature also 

 takes care of itself ; but in the colder 

 portions of this country, there is al- 

 ways more or less of a struggle going 

 on witli both, and a perfect ventilation 

 cannot be obtained without a sacrifice 

 of heat, nor the best temperature with- 

 out some sacrifice of ventilation. Just 

 what is the best compromise in each 

 case is not easy to determine, and I 

 suspect that it is quite possible that 

 some of our notions about wintering 

 bees may undergo considerable change. 



For one, I am far from satisfied with 

 my own practice. If I could winter 



my bees in a cave, like Mr. Doolittle 

 does, with no care whatever, I should 

 be willing to have my colonies come 

 out a little weaker if necessary in the 

 spring ; or if I could let them stay out- 

 doors without care in winter, I should 

 be willing to have mj- winter losses 

 considerably heavier, provided those 

 colonies which did live through should 

 have healthier and more vigorous bees. 

 Marengo, Ills. 



AND WHAT? 



Deaeon Smith on Bee-Keeping 

 with other Pursuits. 



Written tor the American Bee Journal 

 BY EUGENE SECOR. 



Deacon Smith has the happy faculty 

 of hitting the nail squarely on the 

 head. He does not know a rule in 

 grammar from the subtlest philosophj' 

 ever dreamed of, but his contact with 

 the world has given him a common- 

 sense view of the common affairs of 

 life falling under his notice, and al- 

 though sometimes told in a blunt and 

 homely way, his conclusions are often 

 forceful as well as amusing. 



He likes to administer his criticisms 

 in the way the hunter aimed his ritle — 

 to kill, if it was a bear, and to miss if 

 it happened to be a man. At least 

 that's what I thought a few evenings 

 since, when the Deacon " hooked onto 

 Mirandy," and brought her over to our 

 house " to see the good woman," while 

 we, as usual, entertained each other — 

 he doing the talking, and I listening 

 eloquently. 



Its a treat to hear him talk ; and to 

 get him started, all I have to do is to 

 wind him up like a Waterbury watch 

 (but it doesn't take so long to set him 

 going as it does to wind the aforesaid 



Waterburj')- 



Knowing the Deacon to be a sensi- 

 ble man, devoid of all impracticable 

 ideas, and knowing also that the ques- 

 tion at the head of this article has been 

 discussed by many of the best writers 

 and thinkers in apiculture, I was anx- 

 ious to learn the views of a practical 

 bee-keeper who does some thinking on 

 the subject without the writing ; so in 

 answer to the question, he began : 



" What do I think would go along 

 well with bee-keepin' ? Well, I'll tell 

 yon. The best occupation 1 know of is 

 bankin'. You may t.alk about your 

 chicken business, and your small-fruit 

 business, and your farmer.s' and dairy 

 business, and all the etceteras, but they 

 don't compare with bankin'. 



" Wasn't you tellin' me once of the 

 two Irishmen leanin' on their spades, 

 and Mike says to Pat, now Pat, boat 

 would you rayther do for a livin' if ye 



